Male Femaling: A grounded theory approach to cross-dressing and sex-changing [Paperback]

Richard Ekins (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0415106257 | ISBN-13: 978-0415106252 | Publication Date: January 17, 1997

The glamour of transvestite fashion is the epitome of 90s style, but the significance of cross-dressing and sex-changing goes much deeper than the annals of fashion. Ekins vividly details the innermost desires and the varied practices of males who wear the clothes of women for the pleasure it gives them (cross-dressers), or who wish to change sex and are actively going about it (sex-changers). This unique and fascinating book transforms an area of study previously dominated by clinical models to look instead at cross-dressing and sex-changing as a highly variable social process. Giving precedence to the processual and ermergent nature of much cross-dressing and sex-changing phenomena, the book traces the phased femaling career path of the 'male femaler' from 'beginning femaling' through to 'consolidating femaling'. Based upon seventeen years of fieldwork, life history work, qualitative analysis, archival work and contact with several thousand cross-dressers and sex-changers, the book meticulously and systematically develops a theory of 'male femaling' which has major ramifications for both the field of 'transvestism' and 'transsexualism', and for the analysis of sex and gender more generally. Male-Femaling provides social and cultural theorists with a lively case study for the generation of new theory. Social psychologists and sociologists interested in seeing grounded theory applied to a particular case study will be well rewarded. It will be essential reading for students of gender studies who seek to explore the interrelations between sex, sexuality and gender from the informants' point of view.

Editorial Reviews

Review

...among the best in recent literature....highly informative....Elkins offers a major new theoretical approach.
–Transformation

...the book is worth reading. Ekins has selected vivid cases of gender arrangements and encourages readers to think about them in the broadest possible way.
–American Journal of Sociology

The author's theory of male femaling is surely quite original and challenges simplistic or one-dimensional views of the formation of gender identity.
–Choice

...Etkins offers a conceptually rich description of a wide variety of behaviors. Etkins makes a valuable contribution to understanding gender as performance....
–Richard Tewksbury, University of Louisville Contemporary Sociology

About the Author

Richard Ekins is Senior Lecturer in Psychology and Sociology at the University of Ulster. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 208 pages
• Publisher: Routledge (January 17, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0415106257
• ISBN-13: 978-0415106252
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,935,048 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Gendering as a Social Process, March 15, 2002

By 

Robert Prus (University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Male Femaling: A grounded theory approach to cross-dressing and sex-changing (Paperback)

The term "male femaling" refers to one variant of "transgendering," wherein people adopt aspects of roles (as in appearances, interests, dispositions, and life-styles) associated with people of another gender. Although the topic of males endeavoring to "be female" in one or other respects is one that some people are apt to find disconcerting, this is a unique and valuable study of people's experiences in "gendering" or assuming roles as males and females.
Building on a set of contacts that extend over seventeen years, Richard Ekins has provided a very careful, thoughtful, and insightful account of people's involvements in cross-dressing and sex-changing activities. For people interested in the processes of socialization, identity, relationships, solitary and subcultural involvements, and the like, this is a very worthwhile study. Likewise, those interested in "gender theory" and "the body" as realms of sociological investigation could learn much from this inquiry.
In contrast, too, to those who might approach this subject matter in more prurient manners or with the objective of entertaining others, Ekins approaches this subject matter in academic terms. Thus, he neither promotes nor condemns people's gendering practices, but rather attempts to indicate in direct and open terms just how people actually experience and manage their identities and activities in the process of transgendering. Likewise, while sorting through a variety of medical and psychiatric definitions of transgendering activities, Ekins explicitly adopts a symbolic interactionist (Mead, Blumer) viewpoint. Thus, the emphasis is directly on examining the ways in which people engage particular situations, from their viewpoints. While focusing on those involved in an assortment of transgendering (male femaling) practices, the objective is to learn more about the ways in which human group life is accomplished more generally.
In addition to a careful accounting of people's careers of participation in male femaling activities more specifically, Ekins uses "grounded theory" wherein the emphasis is on comparative analysis (using a method of similarities and differences) to see to what extent and in what ways people's experiences in one setting compares with studies of similar processes (such as developing relationships, acquiring identity, and so forth) in other social arenas. The result is some very astute sociological analysis that addresses matters pertinent to the works of Mead, Blumer, Strauss, Goffman, Lemert, and others in the interactionist community.
This is a clear, very well written book, and an important contribution to the literature. It merits considerable attention on the part of social scientists and others interested in the human condition in all of its manifestations.

15 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A long and difficult journey to finish..., May 5, 1999

By 

Mz K. (Austin, Texas USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Male Femaling: A grounded theory approach to cross-dressing and sex-changing (Paperback)

This book is hard-core psychoanalysis stuff. If you are not a therapist, or buying this book for one, you may want to steer clear! I read, identified with, and enjoyed 'True Selves', but I found very little in this book to be considered new information. Other than a course lesson in "grounded theory", which I had no intention of recieving, this book was a snore-fest. I give it a good rating for it's quality as a teaching text, but again, steer clear if you are not into psychoanalytic thoeries.

Kate